Gartner, an American research and advisory firm, recently in the news for acquiring CEB for a whopping $2.6 Billion, released the Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Strategic Sourcing Application Suites report for 2017. The report analyses Software Solution providers who provide modules for spend analysis, e-sourcing, contract management and supply base management. These providers have earned a minimum of $12 million in revenue and have offices on two or more continents among other qualifying criteria.
The evaluation criteria include ‘Ability to Execute’ (Vertical Axis) and ‘Completeness of Vision’ (Horizontal Axis). The former is a more of a qualitative assessment of products, processes, systems, methods and procedures based on survey input from the vendors and their reference customers. The latter however is more of a quantitative assessment of vendors’ ability to grasp current and future market and technology trends, customer needs and competitive forces. Innovation and Product and geographic strategy hold a high weightage here.
The report has placed only three companies – Zycus, BravoSolution and Ivalua in the Leader’s Quadrant amongst the fourteen companies that qualified all the criteria. Also, Zycus scored the highest in the Ability to Execute while BravoSolution scored the highest in the Completeness of Vision. Coupa (Niche Players Quadrant) and POOL4TOOL (Visionaries Quadrant) were the new entrants while SAP Sourcing and Mercado Electronico were dropped from the list.
The report also presented the top three reasons for investing in a strategic sourcing suite as – transforming strategic sourcing, increasing productivity by automating strategic sourcing and delivering increased savings. You may access the report here.
The question you may ask now is – why should you tryst Gartner?
Well, recently in February, 2017, the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR), a not-for-profit organization, released its Tragic Quadrant analysis. The IIAR Global Analyst Firm of the Year 2016 was announced Gartner. The runner ups were Forrester and IDC. The three criteria for the analysis were – Impact on the purchase decision, Relevance in the market and Interaction with the industry. More than 100 different individual organizations had responded to the survey. You may access the report here.
Securing a position in the Gartner’s Magic Quadrant is a proud moment for most vendors and they flaunt it off unapologetically on the front page of their websites. “We are honored to be recognized as a “Leader” in the Magic Quadrant,” said Aatish Dedhia, Founder and CEO, Zycus, Inc. on being included in the report for the first time in 2013. Zycus has since maintained its position. For the cynics, however, I recommend this article which should put to rest their doubts about the authenticity of the report.
Ciao.
Article submitted by:
Tushar Gupta
Marketing Division
Zycus Infotech
Procurement Diaries 